


Subject to Interpretation

by Butterfly_Beat



Series: Purim Gifts 2013 - Babylon 5 Set [3]
Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly_Beat/pseuds/Butterfly_Beat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Londo will be remembered as a tyrant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Subject to Interpretation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imperfectcircle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfectcircle/gifts).



> So, third day's entry means I can say a bit more.
> 
> General apologies for the lack of variety in the offerings, but Babylon 5 was the only fandom of yours that I had familiarity with. I did split it out so that it covered a few of the different elements of the collection as well as characters, at least. All three offerings also ended up being to the serious end (and I should note, having read your "Dear Author," I had a very similar personal experience with B5. Still love it dearly, but it's amazing how much 10 or 15 years can change one's perspective on a show (though I will forever esteem Mira Furlan).
> 
> Hope you enjoy the set, even if they did end up a bit on the darker and more introspective end of the spectrum!

“He meant well.”

If ever there were appropriate words for a tombstone, those would grace the slab of rock to mark Londo Mollari’s passing. There is no doubt that any memorial will be filled with flowery and meaningless words, a wife or two shedding the customary tear before fighting for the remnants of his laughable imperial estate. But when he allows himself too much wine, puts the thing to sleep and skirts his thoughts around the edges of permission, he thinks that honesty might be the kindest thing anyone could say about him.

Vir would have been honest, once upon a time. Naive and well-meaning, but honest underneath it when enough was enough. He’d come a long way, in their years together, and Londo regrets just how well his protege learned the lessons offered by a short-minded war and the bitterest of intergalactic politics. Now, Vir waits in the wings for the day when the title passes. When the man _holding_ the title passes, as well, but such details are beneath a future Emperor of the Centauri Republic. Londo has to laugh every time he thinks of Vir as such, for their homeworld is not the prize that it once was.

He would task G’Kar with sharing his truth, but they are bound far too tightly to trust that one will outlast the other. That G’Kar, a being as broken in body as Londo is broken in spirit, will have the desire to do his old foe a single favour for old time’s sake. The Shadows will come for them, ever the toys of their masters.

Londo will be remembered as a tyrant. He knows this, and has accepted it as the price to keep Centauri safe. To his people’s children, he will have been an agent of darkness, only scant fractions better than the deranged Cartagia. He will be guilty through inaction, through over-reaction - painted impotent and desperate by his enemies when they no longer fear his reach. He will be the grand vizier, who guided his race into darkness and despair for the price of a crown, because deals behind closed doors are secret for a reason.

He can live with this, shall die with this. Far too late has he learned the truth that Humans are only too happy to espouse - that good intentions lead only one place, and that is damnation.

Photo Credit: SamuelRaj


End file.
